PApabs3·Sep 19, 2020
There is an open bootloader, sadly it needs a non-upstream toolchain:
https://github.com/librerpi/rpi-open-firmware
https://github.com/itszor/vc4-toolchain/issues/7
In Raspberry Pi 4 can finally boot directly from USBitszor
vc4-toolchain
C2016–2020
itszor / vc4-toolchain
vc4-toolchain
A port of the GNU toolchain to the Raspberry Pi's VideoCore4 processor.
4Distinct people
7Mentions
0Explicit recommenders
148GitHub stars
What to know before exploring
What it is
A port of the GNU toolchain to the Raspberry Pi's VideoCore4 processor.
GitHub
Where it is used
No documented product use has been verified yet.
What people are saying
No recommendation phrase was found in the indexed comments.
No classified warning is attached to this page. Read the discussions before treating silence as approval.
Also in these discussions
- librerpi/rpi-open-firmware · linked in 4 of the same discussions
Mentioned in the same Hacker News threads. That is not proof they are substitutes.
This week on Hacker News
Nov 7–Nov 14 UTC · Direct repository links and separately labeled related project stories. Indexed through 11/14/2026, 5:04:57 PM UTC.
No direct repository links were found in the indexed HN discussions over the past seven days. Older discussions are available below.
Mentions over time
HN mentions by year7 dated mentions
Observed mentions: 2016-05-02 22:54:57 UTC to 2020-09-19 03:33:16 UTC.
Counts come from the repository’s dated source evidence. Index cutoff: 2026-11-02 08:16:59 UTC.
View mention counts and date ranges
| Period | Start (UTC) | End (exclusive, UTC) | Mentions | Submissions | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 2016-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 2017 | 2017-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2018 | 2018-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2019 | 2019-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 2020 | 2020-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 2021-01-01 00:00:00 UTC | 4 | 0 | 4 |
What Hacker News says
7 sourcesThere is libre RPi boot firmware, unfortunately it relies on toolchain support that isn't upstream yet:
https://github.com/librerpi/rpi-open-firmware
https://github.com/itszor/vc4-toolchain/issues/7
In Raspberry Pi 4 can finally boot directly from USBSome links for folks who want to work on fixing the blob situation:
https://github.com/librerpi/rpi-open-firmware
https://github.com/itszor/vc4-toolchain/issues/7
In Raspberry Pi 3B+ Hackable Linux HandheldSince the GPU starts before the CPU, you need a blob to boot the GPU before you can start open code on the CPU. There is open GPU boot firmware being worked on but it isn't ready yet and relies on GCC support for the GPU, which isn't mainlined yet and the authors don't intend to mainline. So probably RPi will need blobs to boot for the foreseeable future.
https://github.com/librerpi/rpi-open-firmware
https://github.com/itszor/vc4-toolchain/issues/7
In PicoRio Linux RISC-V SBC is an open-source alternative to Raspberry Pi boardbinutils/GCC, have Julian to thank for his wonderful toolchain: https://github.com/puppeh/vc4-toolchain
In Blobless Linux on Raspberry PiI did GCC too, https://github.com/puppeh/vc4-toolchain.
In LLVM Backend for the VideoCore4, Raspberry Pi 2 VPU...hilariously, I've just checked my email, and I see a two-day old message from someone who's just got my previous attempt at a VC4 compiler working. This one was with gcc:
https://github.com/puppeh/vc4-toolchain
In LLVM Backend for the VideoCore4, Raspberry Pi 2 VPU